On the May 22 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor, host Bill O'Reilly said that “no far right person in this country” is “going to get on the cover of Time magazine.” O'Reilly made his comment in response to Time's May 29 edition, which featured the country music trio The Dixie Chicks on its cover -- a band O'Reilly described as “far left.” In fact, Time featured right-wing pundit Ann Coulter on the cover of its April 25, 2005, issue, whom O'Reilly explicitly compared to Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines during the May 22 edition of the Factor, saying: "[I]f you were going to make an example of somebody who takes rhetoric to the extreme, Ann Coulter would be probably your best right-wing shot."

In addition, the cover of the February 7, 2005, issue of Time featured the “Top 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America.” Those included:

• James C. Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, who has compared embryonic stem cell research with Nazi experiments conducted on live human patients during and prior to the Holocaust, and likened Supreme Court justices to the Ku Klux Klan.
• Former Nixon special counsel-turned-Christian radio commentator Charles W. Colson, who has called abortion “the root” of the illegal immigration “problem,” likened discussions in the psychiatric community about whether bias should be classified as a mental illness to the Soviet Union sending Christians “by the hundreds to mental institutions,” and speculated that God sent Hurricane Katrina as a reminder to the United States of the importance of winning the “war on terror.”
• Rev. Richard Land, a radio host, author, and president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who has compared pro-choice advocates to 1860s-era “slave owners.”
• Evangelist Franklin Graham, who has said Muslims must “strap a bomb on” in order to “please God,” stated that Islam is “an evil and wicked religion” and those who think “Islam is such a wonderful religion” ought to “go to Saudi Arabia and make it your home,” and declared that "[i]f God was going to use a hurricane to judge sin," He would have hit Las Vegas before New Orleans.

From the May 22 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: No I don't. I don't think they're -- I think they're a bad outfit [The Dixie Chicks] across the board as far as their tolerance for dissenting points of view. I think that's the problem with them. But, you know, they could've done it -- I have no problem with people trying to get their point across and legitimate dissent. I told her [Maines] that. I, again, I told her, I respected her right to say what she said, and then she distorted my remarks and said to The New York Times that I respected what she said. Total lie. Total lie.

But that's what the far left does. That's what they do. And the far right does it too, but there are so few far right loons anymore. They're just not around and they have no access to the media. No far right person in this country is going to get the cover of Time magazine as the Dixie Chicks are this week. There's not a far right person in this country going to get on the cover of Time magazine. Not gonna happen.

[...]

And Ann Coulter gets some media attention, but not nearly, not nearly what the far-left bomb-throwers get. But if you were going to make an example of somebody who takes rhetoric to the extreme, Ann Coulter would be probably your best right-wing shot.

But, you know what? I've had her on four or five times. You've seen her on the Factor. I make fun of her all the time and I don't agree with, you know, 70 percent of what she says. I think she takes something and runs with it to a degree, which is funny. But Ann Coulter doesn't get angry with me, doesn't, you know -- I have a decent relationship with her. As far as I get her on the phone, I could talk to her. I can book her on the show.

She doesn't -- you see -- and I -- and I -- I see a twinkle in her eye and I'm wondering: Is Ann just doing this for theatre? I don't know. I can't -- I can't say. But Ann Coulter would probably be the example on the right of -- of bombastic opinion.

But I will submit to you this: In a debate on geopolitics between Natalie Maines and Ann Coulter, who's going to win? E.D. Hill.

HILL: I'm going with Ann.

O'REILLY: OK. Is there anybody out there? 'Cause I'll put this event in Madison Square Garden. If -- I know I can get Coulter. OK. Maines we may have to tie up and drag in there. But is there anybody who would bet Natalie Maines versus Ann Coulter. Both rhetoric is in the extreme, I'll grant you that, but who's going to win in the backup category?